Senate Conservatives Move to Fast-Track Homeschooling Law

Overview

• Senators allied with Flávio Bolsonaro filed an urgency request authored by Senator Magno Malta to skip committee debate and bring the homeschooling bill straight to the Senate plenary, a move reported on Tuesday.
• The bill was approved by the Chamber of Deputies in 2022 and has since stalled in the Senate Education Committee without a designated relator.
• The Chamber text would allow parents to provide education at home from basic schooling through high school and sets prerequisites for families plus new pedagogical duties for schools.
• A coalition of education organizations published a manifesto opposing the proposal, arguing it could deepen social and educational inequality, encourage deschooling, and raise risks of violence and lack of child-protection oversight.
• If the Senate approves the urgency and does not alter the text the law would go to the president for sanction or veto, intensifying a partisan fight over procedure and scrutiny in Brasília.